Glad to hear you managed to win. As I said, it is beatable, just requires player do right moves and decisions.

I tried the map with all four underlords on one team, and amazingly won. I would still like to be able to get further on my own, but will keep trying

Initially, the idea of the map was to survive and indeed be the last man standing. It's quite tricky to do if Empire will decide to go for you, so there's a factor of luck involved. Apparently if Empire doesn't go for you then you will be the last one, but if it will - you probably won't be. Do note that game doesn't support special victory conditions, so I had to improvise here.

If you play 4v1, you can assist each other by dropping own units at AI ally's core or casting spells on their territory. This way, map turns into CO-OP survival, where your role is not only to survive, but make sure your AI allies don't die and together you manage to outpush and maybe even beat the Empire AI. It can be played 2v2, where it is competition of 2 teams trying to survive and help each other. If it is FFA, then it's survival mostly, though you can go further and try to beat Empire as well. Beating Empire in FFA may indeed be way too hard, so I recommend playing this map either as FFA survival ( russian roulete type ) or as 4p CO-OP ( Underlords vs Empire ).

The reason I gave Empire a core and thus AI is because otherwise I would have to put lots of units instead in order to offer any form of competition. Empire units when not managed by AI don't offer much resistance and can be lured and slaughtered one by one, unless there's an insane pack of high level Empire units sitting in one spot. I didn't want this kind of challenge so instead, I made it so players have to play smart and avoid angering Empire too early and getting killed. It's the same reason why I didn't make all rooms neutral - it would be an easy challenge for all players, while also would destroy the very idea of the map itself.

Off to bed for me for now

I have not played the level at all with any of the AI players on the same team, since there would seem to be no reason to do so, with the way the map is laid out, there is no way one player can actually assist another, unless I am missing something.
I really do appreciate that you've taken the time to look at this and make some changes.

P.S All Empire Bosses and units given to Empire AI from start begin with level1. They simply gain XP by killing your imps and your beasts if you claim beast den and don't manage your beasts correctly.

I gave Empire 4 mana shrines in the corner for specific reason - they will use spells to slow player's progress with lighting and heal their troops because they have to deal with all 4 players at the same time. Additionally, this is the acceptable form of Empire AI's aggression, another form ( using rally flags from start ) would simply result into player being crushed from minute 1.

Do note that 4 shrines reduce mana price by very high amount - 100 lightning spell will cost 6 mana ( 100 > 50 > 25 > 12 > 6 ), so if you provoke Empire AI too much, you might end up zapped to death. I suggest you try to learn the way Empire AI works and make sure you don't give them reason to go full force on you. This map is basically out-smarting Empire AI, as I said, don't try to beat them by sheer force of units.

Something else just came to mind. Why are all the rooms owned by the Empire anyway? Wny not have them neutral, so that both the players and the Empire have to fight to claim them? Just a thought. The other thing about being last one standing- if the goal is mainly to just survive, why does the Empire have a dungeon core that needs to be destroyed?
As to your note about game not ending-I was not referring to my core being destroyed, but, once again, if the goal is to be last one standing, and the other three underlord cores are destroyed, shouldn't that end the level?--But again, since even with the AI set on Master Level for the other three, they still do not last as long as I do, so if it did work that way, the game would be over very quickly

I played the version with the 2 stone knights, and noticed that the other 3 --- Master AI---players were still finished off in about 1/2 hour. I survived longer until there was a major breach from the garrison to my dungeon, and lost even with a Behemoth summoned. I do believe that the Empire forces just start out at too high a level, with too many boss level fighters. I am also wondering why you have Mana Shrines in the corners, but no way to reach them. I am also bugged by the fact that it seems the Empire AI has access to much more mana than the players. I continually get hit with Lightning strkes, lasting a lot longer than any I am able to generate, even at the beginning of the level, with full mana level, I am not able to kill off the Empire soldiers

Regarding the issue of game not ending when player is killed - this is the bug of game and I'll have devs informed about it. Do note that this happens if all 4 players are on same team, also if your core is destroyed, you can't attract any minions, and any imp you spawn will be instantly converted as soon as he makes contact to any other player's unit. So if you were killed, you can't really win anymore.

Despite all my efforts to simplify breach and buff early start for all players, the results were not satisfying - early capture of Beast Den would result into victory for Underlords after some time, while giving players some troops would result into them being killed from start by Empire. To resolve this issue, I placed medium-sized gold seams at the sides of Empire's doors ( entrance of Beast Den ), so Empire would eventually breach all players ( at 5 minutes, all 4 players should be breached ), thus resolve the issue of AI players not attacking Empire AI or being killed too early by it. 2 Stone Knights were removed in proccess.

Rebalanced gold around cores once again. Rechecked all rooms on all sides - now each side has all rooms ( rather than dublicates or randoms ) except Sanctuary ( small 3x3 Sanctuary is above the Empire core ). Placed prison and torture chambers to line 2, while moved all Empire Lairs to the middle of line 3 ( each side has 5 lines with 3 rooms on each ). Added 2 brimstone tiles per each beast den's walls for easier breaching ( requires underminer ).

Thanks for all your work on this, I do appreaciate it. I just want to get further into the Empire rooms than I have been able to so far.

Another issue arises with the 1.4 patch, needing 8 parts to add a surround to any denfense, which increases the time needed

Normally map should get auto-downloaded by steam when update is pushed. If it doesn't, restarting the game should do the trick.

I updated map again, this time I added 2 Stone Knights for each players near core. This should guarantee that if any of AI players is disturbed by Empire, it will use Stone Knights and try to destroy the door, beginning it's assault on Empire. I will still keep testing map and will check if AI players or Empire AI do breach each other, to prevent stalemate and super-passive stance from both sides.

One other thing, if I start a new game with the map, will it be the newest version of the map?

I do appreciate your work on this. I guess the issue that bothers me the most is that even when I set the 3 AIs to Master level, they get beaten pretty quickly, giving me not enoough time to expand. I just tried playing with a lot of bombards, and got broken into, and all my territory was taken over-- after the Empire AI has beaten the 3 Master AI underlords rather quickly. I simply think that the Empire forces are set at too high a level from the beginning to make anything a close challenge

Refreshed cores of all players. This should fix an issue where game doesn't end properly.

Reduced the amount of gold density on gold near player's starting cores. This was made specifically to motivate AI players dig and attack Empire, rather than just sit and wait for Empire to come and kill them. To compensate the reduction of available gold for players, treasuries that are located near the beast den contain some exptra gold inside them, so claiming those will give player enough gold for their expansion.

Remeber that there are many ways of winning here, don't lose hope and experiment with sins and playstyle.

I noticed an issue with game ending so I'm going to re-release map. Hope this will fix the ending issue.

A tip : You can use all starting gold for embers ( extra troops for you ) or on underminers and traps. Once you claim at least one portal, you should be able to turn tides, as long as you get at least a succubus or inquisitor ( you will be able to convert Empire's bosses and start pushing ). Just make sure you don't lose your troops in some bad way.

I understand what you are saying. I did reach a point in the game where I had the beasts mostly leveled up to 10, and an Archon, and still got devastated. I ran out of gold, and never thought of creating defences without the forge room. What I do not understand, and it may not be possible with the editor, but if I look and see that all the other dungeon cores are dead, shouldn't the game be over?

Map is mostly the same as before, it was simply updated from v1.2 to v1.4, so it does start and work properly.

I didn't implement any specific change yet, as I believe map is already fine and doesn't requre any specific tweaking.

This doesn't always have to be you. In this game Empire AI will randomly go for any of the players, which should give others some time and space to claim the beast den. Beast Den is the first room and if claimed, player shall get some ground, allowing him further progression.

You should try using that extra gold either for underminers ( for quick room grabbing ) or for traps ( go for fast forge spell, with it, you will be able to build doors, bladelotus and bombards ).

There are many ways of surviving here, and it's already quite possible to win if you use your mind . If by any case you are the first one who gets attacked by Empire AI, try blocking them temporarily with replacement earth.

This map requires some luck, but mostly your skills and timing will decide the outcome.

I am a;lso somewhat confused about the differing versions of this map, with no explanation of what, if any changes have veen made

I've played this map since it first came out. I have set all the other underlords to Master level, and I find I am the last one left, but still the level does not end. I see no way to actually play this level and have it be enjoyable. I edited the map myself to remove some Empire forces, and found that it did become somewhat beatable. I do not mind a challenging level, but one which has no way to win is not fun at all. The map notes say to be the last one standing, and I can do that, but there is no clue that this occurs, other than the Empire forces just gang up on me.